KOLKATA: Two cricketers contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on a Trinamool Congress ticket are seemingly on a sticky wicket. While Yusuf Pathan, the TMC candidate from Behrampore, takes on Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, Kirti Azad takes on BJP strongman Dilip Ghosh from Burdwan East.While Pathan is new in politics, Azad has got some previous experience. But both of them are facing the charge of being ‘outsiders’.Moreover their opponents are heavyweights. Chowdhury is a seven-time MP while Ghosh is also an MP and former state president. They are also ready to bet their political career on this election.On Tuesday, Chowdhury said, “If I lose Behrampore , I will quite politics altogether”.Further, the TMC is riddled with factional fights in Burdwan East so much so that a few days back, during a rally, two groups within the party clashed with each other in front of the candidate and Azad had to stop the rally and seek refuge in a temple.A few days back, the BJP also alleged that Yousuf Pathan used the picture of Sachin Tendulkar to woo voters.”Outsiders”The BJP on Sunday picked up the Lok Sabha candidates’ list of the Trinamool Congress to counter the latter’s charge that the BJP was anti-Bengal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was an outsider to the state. Speaking on the sidelines of the BJP’s rally in Sandeshkhali, BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar tore into Trinamul’s choice of “outsider” candidates, including former Indian cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad.“Just half an hour before TMC’s list was announced, Abhishek Banerjee was making statements like the BJP is anti-Bengal. Now, when the candidates are announced, it’s clear that TMC is bringing people from outside. I don’t know if Kirti Azad and Yusuf Pathan are Bengali, Yusuf Pathan is from Gujarat, and so is PM Modi, but for them, PM Modi is an outsider,” he said.The INDIA alliance is nothing but a ship without a captain, he said. “CM Mamata Banerjee wants no other leader to get more importance and become a bigger leader than her and Abhishek Banerjee, hence they give tickets to actresses so that her nephew continues to be a politician,” he added.
Source link
